New look refuse and recycling centres reopening this week

In the pink – Mahurangi Wastebusters director Matthew Luxon (left) and newly appointed operations manager Paul Fromont in front of new transfer bins at Lawrie Road.

The former waste transfer stations at Lawrie Road, Snells Beach and Rustybrook Road, Wellsford are set to reopen this week as new community refuse and recycling centres.

Both Council-owned sites have been closed since July 1 to allow former leaseholder Northland Waste to vacate the premises and new contract holder Mahurangi Wastebusters to move in.

Lawrie Road will open from Thursday, July 18 at 8.30am and Rustybrook Road on Saturday from 10.30am, then in subsequent weeks, every Thursday to Sunday at Snells Beach and Thursday and Saturday at Wellsford (see panel for details).

Both venues will still accept household and garden rubbish as before, but from mid-August will also have separate areas for paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, metal, tyres and so on, and will be opening a shop selling reusable materials such as timber. On-site workshops and demonstrations on how to reduce waste will be run from October, all with the aim to recover, reuse and divert as much waste as possible from going to landfill.

The other main change is that commercial waste and cleanfill will no longer be accepted at either site, and no vehicles over four tonnes allowed.

Mahurangi Wastebusters director Matthew Luxon said pricing was essentially the same as it was with Northern Waste and would be based on volume rather than weight. Customers will drive in and empty their refuse and green waste into new low-sided bins that will then be emptied into the large hooker bins by forklift.

“It should make it more streamlined,” Matthew said. “We won’t have people backing trailers up to the big bins.”

A new operations manager for both venues, Paul Fromont, has been appointed and site employees will include Lucy Banwell at Lawrie Road, who joins Mahurangi Wastebusters from Northland Waste.

As the operation becomes established, a waste tracking system will be used to record exactly what is leaving the site and how much has been diverted from landfill. The target is 50 per cent of all waste coming in during 2020, rising to 65 per cent in 2021 and 70 per cent by 2022.

“This might be new for this area, but it’s not new for New Zealand,” Matthew says.

“There’s been 20 or 30 years of community resource recovery in NZ and we’re proud to bring it here.”

Mahurangi Wastebusters was established in 2017 as a charitable trust led by volunteers, focusing on waste minimisation activities, events and workshops. In December, the trust entered a joint venture with Localised, a social enterprise owned by the Zero Waste Network, to establish Mahurangi Wastebusters Ltd, allowing it to tender for a two-year contract with Auckland Council to run interim waste and resource recovery services, while remediation works are carried out at the former landfill sites.

Prior to that, the waste transfer stations were run by Northland Waste, which is currently seeking resource consent to open a major new indoor waste sorting and recovery centre on land off 183 Sandspit Road near Warkworth.

Matthew Luxon said Mahurangi Wastebusters was “very thankful” to Northland Waste, as the company had done such a great job in clearing the sites when its lease ended in June.

Info: mahurangiwastebusters.nz/community-recycling-centres or Mahurangi Wastebusters on Facebook

Opening hours

Lawrie Road, Snells Beach
Reopening Thursday, July 18
Thursday:    8.30am-4pm
Friday:    8.30am-4pm
Saturday:    8.30am-4pm
Sunday:     9.30am-4pm

Rustybrook Road, Wellsford
Reopening Saturday, July 20
Thursday:    ​10.30am-3pm
Saturday:     10.30am-3pm